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Embarrassing Short Sale

You're not going to believe which organization just had to sell their headquarters building on a short sale. This is so embarrassing. Ready for this? The Mortgage Banker's Association. No, this is not a joke. The Mortgage Banker's Association (MBA), sold its Washington, DC headquarters building on a short sale for $41.3 Million, a little more than half the $79 Million they originally financed in 2007. Why is this so incredibly embarassing? Oh boy, where do I begin...

Bank Hiring Surge

Banks across America are mounting a hiring surge right now. Why? They are gearing up for what lies ahead...more defaults, more short sales and more foreclosures. Collectively, the big 4, including Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo and Citi have recently added over 17,000 new employees to their payroll to help manage the volume of loan modification and short sale requests as well as the disposal of foreclosures. And the most ambitious are those that have a large number of Alt-A (Interest Only and Option ARM) loans. Wachovia, for example, is loaded with these loan products. They were recently acquired by Wells Fargo so now it's Wells Fargo's responsibility to deal with the mess that is going to be hitting them this summer when many of these Alt-A loans begin re-casting to fully amortized loans.

FHA Waives 90 Day Title Seasoning Rule

HUD announced Friday that the 90 day title seasoning requirement on FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans will be waived beginning February 1, 2010 for one year. This is the greatest news to hit the real estate investing world in the past 20 years. I'm sobbing from jubilation, trying to wipe back the tears as I type. (And you should be jumping up and down as you read this too). This is the most exciting decision the government has made in recent history as it pertains to real estate investing. Let me explain... For as long as I can remember,

A Second Wave of Mortgage Defaults?

Is there a second wave of mortgage defaults on the horizon? According to the following "60 Minutes" report, not only is the answer YES, but it may be as big as the first one. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4668112n The first wave of mortgage defaults was the sub prime meltdown. Those were the loans given to borrowers with low credit scores and unverifiable income. This second wave that 60 Minutes has uncovered is comprised of "Alt-A" and "Option ARM" loans that were given to high credit score, completely verifiable income borrowers. So what's the problem, you ask? These were loans created so that people could obtain a larger property than their finances would afford. The first 3-5 years, the loans had very low interest rates and/or monthly payments. But now, with real estate prices plunging, when the payments for these loans return to the normal amount, many, many people are going to be stuck having to pay on a loan that is far larger than the property value. The beginning of this new wave is already here but it is predicted that by 2010, it will reach its peak. Their is one major difference between wave #1 and this new wave. Wave # 2 involves very nice properties in very nice areas. To short sale investors like myself and my students, this could be the greatest economic opportunity of our lifetimes. That's a bold statement, but it could be absolutely true! With short sales, you make more money, the bigger the deal. So this second wave should be an even bigger massive financial windfall for us. Which brings me to a very personal question for you... Are You Ready? Are you prepared for this? Or are you the type that can you look in the mirror and honestly say that you are not interested in what could be the biggest financial opportunity for ordinary people since the gold rush? If so, good luck to you. But for those of you who know that this could be your last chance at a making a million or more dollars in a very short period of time, I want you to listen up... I have a webinar scheduled tomorrow night, Wednesday, April 1, 2009 at 9PM Eastern. On this webinar, I'll get you prepared for how to take advantage of this second wave. You can access the webinar at this link. Please save this link. I'll see you there. http://www.shortsaleteaching.com/webinarevent.html